Tambunan Rafflesia Reserve
Tambunan Rafflesia Reserve
3.5
About
Meets animal welfare guidelines
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listing
Tours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.

Top ways to experience Tambunan Rafflesia Reserve and nearby attractions

The area

Reach out directly
Best nearby
We rank these restaurants and attractions by balancing reviews from our members with how close they are to this location.
Attractions
1 within 6 miles

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

3.5
3.5 of 5 bubbles130 reviews
Excellent
36
Very good
43
Average
32
Poor
10
Terrible
9

Jo-Ann
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia17,192 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2022 • Friends
Great experience. We saw the life cycle of the Rafflesia - baby buds, 3 day old bloom, 5 day old bloom, 6 day old bloom, and a dead one! We were there on a muddy and slippery day. Rented boots from the centre for RM4. Guide was RM50. The tour was RM5 per pax. The climb into the forest was a steep but short one. Worth the trip if you can see several Rafflesia. This species is called Rafflesia Pricei. No smell!!!
Written September 27, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

trientalis
United States1,839 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2022 • Family
The staff here is absolutely amazing! I contacted them by Whatsapp and they updated me daily on flowering and other details. I couldn't believe the kindness and attention to detail their staff showed in helping us plan our trip. Thank you!
Written December 26, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

VagabondingSkelley
Brisbane1 contribution
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Its a minimum 2 hour return walk into the forest, which gets very muddy, steep and slippery, paths are not marked at all well and there are no maps available. The reception is quite unhelpful unless your prepared to fork out 50ringett for a guide ($20) and even then they might try to extort an entrance fee from you - its a free entry.

Make sure u wear proper walking shoes, plenty of insect repellent, at least 2L of water per person and raincoat. There are plenty of leeches and probably a few snakes as well. Make sure u set off in enough time as they like to close early (2pm), they even closed up and went home after we'd registered leaving us in the forest alone. Fortunately all was good.

Flowers are hard to find but possible to without guide - we saw a very nice one. If u have a good gps with track back function then take it though!!
Written April 23, 2008
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

TravelQueenie365
Singapore, Singapore666 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2011 • Family
You probably seen this flower somewhere in a book or on the internet but never really know where to find it. If you are keen to see the flower, you can actually see it in Kota Kinabalu and you won't regret it!

We actually passby the national park and the locals charged us 20 ringgit for viewing the Rafflesia. The experience was amazing and you should see it!

I am sorry that I have never actually gone into the national park except viewing the Rafflesia flower near the entrance of the national park.

Please click 'Yes' If you think my reviews have been helpful to you.
Written September 2, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

cellowei
Keningau, Malaysia38 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2014 • Family
I have tried visit here several time look for the giant flower. For the previous experience, the blooming really depends on your luck. The forest ranger have to patrol every corner of he forest to look for the flower, so they can plot down the location for tourist(not a easy job). Once again, the distance from the centre to the flower also depends on luck, it might be 15min walk, it might also be 2 hour walk. Our trip consist of 4 person, me, my husband and my parents. Luckily the flower is only about 20min walk from the centre. We hire a guide at a price of RM50 as he will be necessary for us to locate the flower. The guide is very knowledgeable, gave us really nice info about the flower. We really appreciate his profession. Actually there's a lot of interesting plants, trees and bamboo to look at during the walk. If you love nature, enjoy it!
Written March 14, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Nur Zunaidah A
Labuan Island, Malaysia435 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Since there are not many Rafflesia Reserve in Malaysia, I can't make a comparison, but based on the effort put into maintaining this centre in the middle of the raiforest,I was quite impressed. The staff will also walk you into the wild to see the flower in blooming season, but the walk can be adventurous- no heels please.......
Written September 2, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Country_hopper99
Belgium219 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2013
We arranged a taxi ouf of KK. After negotiating we agreed on 150 RYM. It takes 1.5 hours to get to the reserve. The reserve closes at 2PM and check updront if they do have flowers blooming! You can check with the tourist information center at KK. Entrance to the reserve is 5MYR pp. They charge another 5MYR for cameras. You pay 100MYR for the guide. You do need a guide as the flowers are in the middle of the forest. You can share this with 5 persons but not many tourists come to this place. In total this trip has cost us 265MYR making this a very expensive flower. We saw 3 flowers. All were on averagw 20cm. According to the guide the real bog flowers were not to be found in this park.
It was nice to see the flower but the experience is not worth this price.
Written July 23, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Austyannie
Perth, Australia236 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2013 • Couples
We stopped on the way to the Kinabalu National Park, so it didn't cost us extra to actually travel there. There was a RM30 fee to view the bloom however it is a unique experience. The bloom has no roots, or leaves and only blooms once every 18 months or so. The people who charge the fee are the ones who also "tend" the area to encourage more blooms. The one we saw was about one metre diameter. Completely unique and was great to see. A bit of a walk, but worth the effort.
Written April 22, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

T_Killeen
T_diddy170 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2012 • Couples
We got a shared minivan from KK and reluctantly paid the 100 ringgit for the guide and 5 ringgit entrance fee. We thought the guide fee was a little steep but we didn't want to be trekking through what we had heard could be a difficult jungle walk so we paid up. The fee can be shared with a group of up to 6 people apparently but with no other people around we paid it between the two of us.

The guide, armed with a big knife, was nice and friendly and informative. He was pretty fast on the walk but he did ask if the pace was okay or not.

The walk itself was pretty challenging. Neither my partner nor I have much stamina to speak of at the moment so by the end we were exhausted. Rain is common here so the walk can be slippery. The first 5-10 minutes walk are on a concrete path, which then leads on to the jungle floor. We were out there for an hour and a half and saw three flowering rafflesia which made the whole thing worth it.

We finished at around 3pm and waited for our taxi to return. It wasn't until 4pm that it arrived but our guide waited with us until he arrived. He even phoned the driver when we had finished the walk and again when he was late.

He also said they used to have a shop with drinks and food etc. but it had closed due to lack of tourists. I think they are doing a good job with the reserve and I hope they get some more visitors. The trek alone is fun and challenging.

We saw no leeches or mosquitoes and would recommend bringing good walking boots and some water.
Written September 16, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Ian S
Arnside, UK107 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2018 • Couples
Don't set off for this place unless you have definite information that it is open. We could not find out for sure and had a wasted long difficult trip. It looked like it had not been open for a while.
Written March 4, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

…
Showing results 1-10 of 70
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing

Tambunan Rafflesia Reserve - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

All Kota Kinabalu HotelsKota Kinabalu Hotel DealsLast Minute Hotels in Kota Kinabalu
All things to do in Kota Kinabalu
Day Trips in Kota KinabaluAmusement Parks in Kota Kinabalu
RestaurantsFlightsVacation RentalsTravel StoriesCruisesRental Cars